Two schools 36 miles apart. A football series dormant since 2000. And a new competition that counts every sport equally.
ULM and Louisiana Tech announced on August 18 that they are launching the Radiance Technologies I-20 Showdown Rivalry Series, a year long competition running across every sport the two schools share.
The interesting part is not that two neighbours are playing each other again. It is how they decided to keep score.
How the series works
Every sport counts the same. Win the head to head matchup and your school takes one point. A tie splits it, half a point each. Only sports both schools sponsor are counted, and in sports that play multiple games against each other, the series winner takes the point.
Some sports do not have a clean head to head result, so those are settled by conference finish instead. Men’s and women’s cross country and men’s golf go to whichever school places higher in the league standings. Men’s and women’s track and field are decided on a combined indoor and outdoor finish.
Twelve points are available across the year. Six and a half clinches it.
And if the whole thing finishes level, the tiebreaker is the football game. Which is a neat piece of design: every sport is worth the same, right up until the moment it matters most.
Why now
The two campuses sit about 36 miles apart on Interstate 20, which is where the series gets its name. They played football every year for 39 straight seasons before the annual run ended in 1991, and they have not met on a football field at all since 2000.
They tried to fix that once already. In 2023 the schools signed a home and home football series, but the dates were 2030 and 2031. Then Louisiana Tech moved to the Sun Belt Conference, which put both schools in the same league and pulled the reunion forward by four years. That is also why these games now carry double weight: each one counts in the conference standings and in the Showdown.
The rest of the athletic departments never actually stopped playing. The two have met regularly in other sports as nonconference opponents, often several times a year. ULM says it took the head to head edge 5 to 2 across the 2026 athletic year in volleyball, women’s basketball, baseball and softball.
The dates that matter
The series opens on October 4, when the soccer teams meet in Ruston.
The first Monroe date is October 17, when Louisiana Tech’s football team visits FMOL Health St. Francis Stadium for the first time since 2000.
Branding for the series was set to debut the same day as the announcement, with the championship trophy to be revealed later.
What the schools are saying
ULM athletics director SJ Tuohy pointed to the shape of the thing as the appeal, saying he likes that “it brings together student athletes from different sports to compete together for a trophy.”
Radiance Technologies chief executive Bill Bailey framed the sponsorship as an investment in the region, noting the company’s growing presence in north Louisiana.
Why it is worth watching
Most rivalry trophies are attached to one game in one sport. This one is closer to a season long standings table, which means a volleyball match in October and a softball series in April carry the same weight as anything else on the calendar.
For athletes in sports that rarely decide anything beyond their own bracket, that is a genuine change. A cross country finish is now worth exactly as much as a football win, at least until the tiebreaker.
By the numbers
| Series name | Radiance Technologies I-20 Showdown Rivalry Series |
| Distance between campuses | About 36 miles on Interstate 20 |
| Points available | 12 |
| Points to clinch | 6.5 |
| Value of a win | 1 point. A tie is worth half |
| Tiebreaker | Winner of the football game |
| Series opener | Oct. 4, soccer at Ruston |
| First Monroe date | Oct. 17, football at FMOL Health St. Francis Stadium |
| Last football meeting | 2000 |
